On Tim Ferriss’ blog, he recently posted an article written by Chad Fowler titled “The Big Question: Are You Better Than Yesterday?“. Although it is simplistic, it is an ideal mindset to constant improvement.
Often times as a DJ, the vision of packed dance floors and sold out venues seems like a distant fairy tale. There are times when getting a single gig seems hard, let alone a quality gig. We play gigs in empty bars. We look out at empty dance floors and bored faces and success feels so far away.
It’s frustrating.
The hardest part of DJing is dealing with your mind. Being isolated in a DJ booth is an easy way to drive yourself insane with doubts and fears. We want that instant success for validation. So we can prove to ourselves that we are worthy and deserving of gigs. Then we can feel like a real DJ.
The truth is that success only comes to the people who refuse to give up. The people that continually work on their weaknesses are the ones that are able to overcome them. I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t going to wake up tomorrow and mix tracks flawlessly or have the perfect set. Your branding and mic skills won’t wow everyone without lots of practice. There are lots of failures on the path to mastery. And you have to continually be willing to step outside your comfort zone and make mistakes.
But the best part is that you don’t need to be an incredible DJ tomorrow. You just have to not give up and you will be incredible someday. So don’t try to be perfect tomorrow, just be better than you were yesterday. And if you take that mentality and just focus on being a little bit better each and every day, before you know it you will look back at an amazing journey.
Thanks, great article.